IN PICS | City Power and Joburg Water disconnect illegal connections in CBD

Johannesburg Water and City Power on Wednesday disconnected illegal water and electricity connections at three buildings in the inner city.

The buildings, which house shops, hair salons and flats are in Joubert Park and had been using illegally connected water and power for months.

Johannesburg Water spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala said it is a multidisciplinary operation that focuses on hijacked buildings in the inner city after technical assessments were carried out.

“This is part of the mayor's rejuvenation programme to root out criminality and illegal connections in the city's infrastructure,” she said.

The city has 57 hijacked buildings that have been identified for water and electricity theft so far and they have disconnected four buildings, said Shabalala.

“The building we're in now owes R7.2m due to nonpayment and to reconnect they will have to make an arrangement with the city.” 

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said illegal electricity connections put a strain on their operations because of the amount of money they are losing.

“We discovered this building uses the street light cable to connect to the main tower, that's why the street lights are not working,” he said.

This often leads to power outages caused by an over subscription capacity created by illegal connections.

Mangena said in the past financial year, City Power lost R4bn in technical and non-technical losses. This included electricity stolen through such connections.

“We are taking this opportunity to make sure we collect that revenue because when we lose money we are unable to build infrastructure and when people complain about outages we should be able to connect them,” he said, noting the inconvenience illegal connections cause customers.

Mangena said the operation will continue for the next six weeks to ensure illegal practices in Johannesburg are stopped.

One of the affected shop owners, Hasan Rasadul, who started renting in the building four months ago, said he has been severely affected and was not aware the building had been illegally connected.

“I didn't know the building had issues with electricity. I pay R16,000 rent to the caretaker and I don't know where the money is going,” he said. His audiovisual retail business cannot function without electricity.

A security guard at the property, who did not want to be named, said there was another disconnection operation in February but it emerged they were disconnected erroneously.

“I've been working here for more than 10 years and what's painful is the residents will suffer and won't be able to do anything,” he said.

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